Blah blah blah… this led to a conversation with Wm. Berger about movies that give off a bit of a “Telecult vibe.” I was thinking The Satanic Rites of Dracula & Psychomania, and I was excited to see his list was different than mine. Looks like I will have no problem figuring out what to put on my Netflix cue in November.

Make sure you click on the image, it will take you to a youtube clip of the film in question. Un-Telecult Soundtracked tho.

With that, I present to you Wm. Berger’s Five Points Twice: Ten Films to Watch Telecult Powers By – Witchbeam

Materials:

1. My favorite Telecult Powers recordings – the tapes Dedicated to Robert Moore b/w Twilight of the Oscillators, and Kiss the Viper’s Fang. These, plus the Telecult WFMU live session from my show this past July 22.

2. A stack of DVD/VHS, all films I love and have watched more than twice

3. etc.

4. Candles

Method:

1. View segments of each film, with tapes playing loudly, and film audio completely muted. (Subtitles were at first optional, but I ultimately decided against them, deciding that they distracted from the mission at hand.)

3. Fine tune results. Ideally, the film and music arc and lift together.

4. Finally, consider the numerology, i.e., the number of items on the list. Does it feel right? Can a title or two be easily shaved? The answer is probably yes.

Results:

The below are indeed in a very specific order of my personal viewing preference.

Many thanks to Witchbeam for suggesting this study.

1. Masque of the Red Death (dir. Roger Corman, 1964)
Occult technicolor. A beautiful film throughout, cinematography by Nicholas Roeg.

2. Inferno (dir. Dario Argento, 1980)
Since Suspiria already has the most wonderful soundtrack ever, Inferno, its cousin similar in look and tone, is the ideal Argento film for a Telecult treatment. To hear the Pei boys warble and pulsate at that underwater room scene might almost be too much.

4. The Shiver of the Vampires (dir. Jean Rollin, 1971)
Telecult Powers’ music and director Rollin’s image parade are perhaps the most perfect marriage.

5. Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural (dir. Richard Blackburn, 1973)
One of my favorite films. Why would I not want to hear one of my favorite contemporary bands score it? Set almost entirely in vampiric bluish-purple.

6. Requiem for a Vampire (1971)
Yes, I snuck another Jean Rollin film onto this list. Anything that starts with a sexy female clown shooting out the back of a car window is Telecult-ready.

7. Shock Waves (dir. Ken Wiederhorn, 1977)
Nazi zombies; another one of my all-time favorites. (Comes with its own burbling, unsettling synthesizer score, so watch it before (or after) with the sound UP.)

Outstanding list, and you can’t go wrong with any of these selections, tho I have to say Daughters of Darkness takes a while to get going and I can’t watch The Dunwich Horror without connecting it to Les Baxter’s amazing score. A film I’d definitely suggest for this list is Renalto Polselli’s Riti, magie nere e segrete orge nel trecento, as it totally fits the criteria and you don’t really lose anything by not having the dialogue.